# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2004_S216
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

216 PROGRAM AND FINANCE

4-31

To Direct Disclosure of Foundation Gifts

WHEREAS, The Board of Directors, under the Constitution, pos-
sesses the powers and duties which make it responsible for the gen-
eral management of the business, legal, and financial affairs of the
Synod; and

WHEREAS, Each of the entities and agencies of the Synod are to
disclose fully their financial books and records to member congre-
gations of the Synod; and

WHEREAS, The Synod, its President’s Office, its Auxiliaries,
various Recognized Service Organizations, and other related orga-
nizations and entities have been the recipients of and/or channels
for financial gifts from the Marvin M. Schwan Charitable Founda-
tion; and

WHEREAS, The founding document of said Trust would indicate
that its purpose is to “exert influence” upon the organizations
which receive funding from the trust; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod, in convention, directs the Board of
Directors to ascertain and to disclose gifts received from all foun-
dations by the Synod or parts of its organization or its entities and
any amounts that are channeled through the Synod to other organi-
zations.

Trinity
Walnut Creek, CA

4-32

To Avoid Any Conflict of Interest
of Elected Synodical Officials

WHEREAS, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod elects offi-
cials in conventions and by boards to serve its various national and
District ministries; and

WHEREAS, It is the natural expectation of the LCMS that every
individual who is elected to serve our church body will conduct
themselves with the best interests of the LCMS in mind, as well as
with the highest personal integrity, openness, and candor; and

WHEREAS, The manner in which the church body conducts its
business should be of an even higher ethical standard than that of
the world; and

Wuereas, Each year alone the LCMS receives millions of dol-
lars in direct or indirect support of its various ministries from aux-
iliaries, private companies, and various private foundations that
have been established to further the work and support of our church
body in ministry; and

WHEREAS, The dollars are so large that as much as one-third of
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s national budget has re-
cently come from contributions from such foundations; and

WHEREAS, The ethos for properly doing church business should
be based on the teachings of Scripture, especially where the Bible
clearly says in Matt. 6:24 and Luke 16:13 that we cannot serve both
God and mammon; and

WHEREAS, In order to maintain and uphold our confession that
there is only “one, holy Christian church,” therefore we are wise
to work diligently to avoid creating “a church within the church”;
and

WHEREAS, Presently, and in the past, some elected officials of
the LCMS have personally served auxiliaries, recognized service
organizations or private companies, private foundations or trusts,
either voluntarily or for hire, while at the same time endeavoring to
serve the LCMS in an elected capacity; therefore be it

Resolved, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod recognizes
that such dual service may create the opportunity for genuine con-
flict of interests and that dual service is not in the best interest of ei-
ther the LCMS or others; and be it further

Resolved, That in order to serve both the LCMS faithfully and
in a manner that is above reproach, the terms of service for all
elected officials of the LCMS will require them to immediately re-

sign from serving any board, company, private foundation or trust
that contributes dollars directly or indirectly to the LCMS’s various
ministries, including its RSOs and auxiliaries; and be it finally

Resolved, That if an elected official of The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod is found to be in the employment or service of such
a board, company, private foundation or trust as mentioned in the
previous paragraph, he or she immediately forfeits his or her posi-
tion and a replacement will be named by the President of the
LCMS.

Mt. Olive
Poway, CA

4-33

To Direct Boards and Committees
to Operate “in the Sunshine”

WHEREAS, Virtually every state in the union has some sort of
open-meetings or open-records law; and

WHEREAS, Since 1968 our federal government has had a “Free-
dom of Information Act’; and

WHEREAS, Both state and federal statutes assert in brief that
public business should be done in public and not behind closed
doors, and that the public has the “right to know” how public busi-
Ness is conducted; and

WHEREAS, The church should not be behind but rather ahead of
civil government in providing its members access to information
about the actions of its various boards and committees (2 Cor. 4:2;
Luke 12:2); and

WuerEAS, In harmony with the principle of unrestricted access
to information about the activities of the various agencies of the
Synod, Bylaw 3.69 i calls upon “agencies” of the Synod to make
available on request a verbatim copy of the minutes of their meet-
ings, except for executive sessions; and

WHEREAS, Bylaw 3.51 a defines an “agency” of the Synod as
“an instrumentality other than a congregation, whether or not sepa-
rately incorporated, which the Synod in convention or its Board of
Directors has caused or authorized to be formed to further the
Synod’s objectives”; and

WuereAs, The Board of Directors of Synod has been created
by the Synod and thus is subsumed under the definition of an
“agency” in Bylaw 3.51 a; and

WterEAS, Most civil statutes have provisions for “executive
sessions” that clearly specify those matters for which such sessions
may be allowed (such as matters of personal privacy, personnel,
litigation, and real-estate transactions); and

WueREAS, While under certain circumstances there may be
valid reasons for going into executive sessions on the part of certain
Synod agencies, ordinarily the decisions and actions of boards and
committees of the Synod should be made “in the sunshine”; and

WuerEAS, Many states require minutes of the discussion and/or
vote be made public within a specified time period after an action
within an executive session; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod, in convention, direct all of its agen-
cies (including the Board of Directors) to honor the principle of
“government in the sunshine” and call upon all of its recognized
service organizations and auxiliaries to follow the same principle;
and be it further

Resolved, That the only matters that may be used to justify an
“executive session” deal with matters of personal privacy, person-
nel, litigation, real-estate, and financial transactions; and be it fi-
nally

Resolved, That the minutes of all executive sessions of all agen-
cies of the Synod be made available to the appropriate convention
floor committee for review.

Prince of Peace
Orlando, FL